Rating: R | Runtime: 94 minutes
Release Date: July 25th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Director(s): Sophie Brooks
Writer(s): Sophie Brooks / Sophie Brooks & Molly Gordon (story)

I did something bad.

It’s tough to pinpoint the strength of Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac’s (Logan Lerman) relationship at the start of Sophie Brooks’ Oh, Hi! The sexual chemistry is obviously dialed to an eleven, but that doesn’t mean much. So, we must look at other details. The fact they’re driving to a very nice forest retreat in High Falls for a romantic weekend getaway definitely feels like they’ve been together for a long time, but the questions and revelations sprinkled throughout their conversations skews sharply in the opposite direction. The only thing we know for certain is that they’re a couple who enjoy each other’s company and look to have a bright future ahead of them. Unless that’s not true either.

Written by Brooks (from a story by her and Gordon), the film unfolds with two obvious wrenches built-in to upend whatever expectations you had prior. I should probably say three considering we catch a glimpse of the plot’s mid-point at the very beginning before rewinding thirty hours, but I’m going to consider that a tease of the second rather than its own. And since I don’t want to give anything away, I’ll just say these pivots are crucial to the script’s success because they ultimately supply the major conflict points necessary for narrative tension. Things are going so well during the first act that we’re desperate for a record scratch to jolt us into a state of having absolutely no idea where we’re going.

These are big swings. Not just to subvert our expectations, but to shift from the cutely absurd to the unbelievably absurd. Because it’s one thing to be making out in the water only have a monotone David Cross yell at you to stop having sex in public. It’s another to find yourself caught in a manic episode of incredulity that forces you to spiral into committing a crime under the auspices that it’s akin to playing an icebreaker game. That’s the thing about these wrenches: they’re less about the revelations halting the current tonal momentum and more about the crazy responses made to those revelations. It’s as though Brooks and Gordon kept asking themselves, “How can we make this scenario worse.”

While I’d say they found the sweet spot needed to balance the implausibility of actions with the emotionality of situations more often than not, the times they miss do feel more impactful via their tendency to subdue our enjoyment. It’s like what Kenny (John Reynolds)—boyfriend to Iris’ best friend Max (Geraldine Viswanathan)—says about our brains remembering danger triggers quicker and longer than pleasure triggers. I was laughing and wincing in the best ways when Iris starts to spiral, but it’s not long before that premise begins to spin its wheels. The same goes with the introduction of Max and Kenny. They’re a welcome addition to spice up the drama and comedy, but the joke wears thin.

Oh, Hi! is thus a case where a sound premise is letdown by execution. Not because where Brooks takes us doesn’t work, but because those two left turns are never truly expanded upon beyond their initial slap to the face. The hope is that having the characters keep talking and creating new ways to remind the audience how wild the current circumstances are will sustain the effect. Unfortunately, the sting always fades about halfway before the next smack. Boom! We’re awake. We embrace these lovers’ difference of opinions transforming into felonies and then realize everything has become about stretching the joke rather than enhancing it. Then … boom! We’re awake again. The fun is back. And then it’s gone.

That’s the trouble with a two-hander. The dynamic must be changed. One character cannot wield all the control for the duration. Yes, the other implies a shift in control, but, because they are at such a large disadvantage, showing that power only guarantees the first will never risk actually letting them prove it. This is why Max and Kenny become unavoidable. If you can’t change the dramatic energy between your two main characters, you must add more to at least shake things up. And when that inevitably runs its course, all you have left is to end the charade and see where the chips fall. To the film’s credit, the end works great.

It renders the whole a tough one to pin down as a result. I loved the parts I loved and I was bored by the parts that added nothing to the central question behind the former. Who is at fault? The easy answer is Iris considering what transpires, but that doesn’t absolve Isaac from helping to create the situation that provokes her. I almost wish we just spent the duration with them talking it out. Still give us those first twelve hours of her dumping her entire life history on him while he stares at the clock, but then give us the heartfelt introspection that arrives at the very end in a way that lasts forty minutes instead of five. The absurdity might be fun, but Gordon and Lerman’s shared complexity is what intrigues.

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Molly Gordon as Iris, Logan Lerman as Isaac in OH, HI!; courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.